![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
2019 Wrap-Up and 2020 Goals
It's that time of the year, so it's time for one of those reflection posts. But it's not just the end of 2019, but the end of a whole decade. So I suppose this post doubles as looking back on my life in the past decade, too.
Looking Back on 2019
The first big accomplishment of my year was my successful Bachelor's thesis defense, and so completing my major. It feels more distant than it is, oddly enough. I sent in my application for the Master's majors of my choice. I spent the Spring with university duties as well preparing for my entrance exams. My efforts paid off and I made it into the major of my first choice.
Unfortunately, as I found out the hard way, Master's is tougher than I anticipated. Ever since my semester started, my mental state has been getting worse and I've been feeling increasingly lonely. I hoped things would look up once the semester ended, but those feelings didn't improve. At the time of writing this entry, I'm just not in a good place.
I learned R this semester and was probably the class I enjoyed the most. This was one area where my past experiences paid off, as coding doesn't intimidate me at all anymore. I'm looking forward to deepening my knowledge so I can do even more things with it.
As far as my creative pursuits go, it's been difficult to get myself into the creative mindset. I made progress with the Twine story I had in mind, but it's nowhere near complete and I'm not even sure when it will be ever completed. One third of it is the size of the scope (a multi chapter story probably isn't the best starting point), another third is the lack of drive to work on it. The last third is my fixation on constantly re-editing parts I'm working on, so I'm not advancing with the plot at all, even if I improved on the parts I were editing.
Regarding other writing projects, I wrote reviews for Final Fantasy Type-0 HD and World of Final Fantasy (Maxima). I was intending to do a write-up for Final Fantasy XV too, but I couldn't get myself to finish it due to lack of drive and time. I still have a WIP draft sitting around, but I honestly don't know when I can get around finishing it. Until then, I want to say that I really enjoyed the game despite its shortcomings, and over time it crept its way into my top favorite FFs. Noctis being a fantastic and relatable protagonist and the main antagonist becoming my #1 favorite in the franchise helped big time.
I've been playing Final Fantasy Tactics in the past few months, but my completionist tendencies have slowed my progress to a crawl (gotta get those delicious high-end job skills for all the major characters I'm going to keep using, ouch). I've yet to finish the main story for the time being.
Games I'm interested in playing in when I can get to them: Later Alligator, Eliza and Final Fantasy VIII.
I've been keeping up with volunteer play testing for A Purrtato Tail (which is very pawsome). I took a new approach to reporting issues. I'm hoping to keep refining my QA skills as more builds come out.
I meant to get back to Blender, but university ate up my time so I wasn't able to work on anything since September. I shared my most recent works on my journal as I only had them on Twitter until now. A few days ago I got an idea for something I wanted to build out, but I wasn't able to nail it down, so I got frustrated and left it to sit. Though, not having touched Blender for months didn't help, either.
I didn't even make it to learning Unity and C#, but that's okay. The more knowledge and skills I accumulate from university and other sources, the smoother it will be when I get to that point (hopefully). Particularly with learning programming languages and coding practices.
Looking Back on the 2010s
Honestly, I am more than happy to put this decade behind me. While I don't want to ignore the good things that happened, my twenties weren't the best. If entering my thirties means a better future for me, then I'll welcome it by all means.
I don't want to focus on the negatives. Some of my highlights:
Looking Forward to 2020
My list for the next year is rather simple:
And with that, Happy New Year, everyone.
Looking Back on 2019
The first big accomplishment of my year was my successful Bachelor's thesis defense, and so completing my major. It feels more distant than it is, oddly enough. I sent in my application for the Master's majors of my choice. I spent the Spring with university duties as well preparing for my entrance exams. My efforts paid off and I made it into the major of my first choice.
Unfortunately, as I found out the hard way, Master's is tougher than I anticipated. Ever since my semester started, my mental state has been getting worse and I've been feeling increasingly lonely. I hoped things would look up once the semester ended, but those feelings didn't improve. At the time of writing this entry, I'm just not in a good place.
I learned R this semester and was probably the class I enjoyed the most. This was one area where my past experiences paid off, as coding doesn't intimidate me at all anymore. I'm looking forward to deepening my knowledge so I can do even more things with it.
As far as my creative pursuits go, it's been difficult to get myself into the creative mindset. I made progress with the Twine story I had in mind, but it's nowhere near complete and I'm not even sure when it will be ever completed. One third of it is the size of the scope (a multi chapter story probably isn't the best starting point), another third is the lack of drive to work on it. The last third is my fixation on constantly re-editing parts I'm working on, so I'm not advancing with the plot at all, even if I improved on the parts I were editing.
Regarding other writing projects, I wrote reviews for Final Fantasy Type-0 HD and World of Final Fantasy (Maxima). I was intending to do a write-up for Final Fantasy XV too, but I couldn't get myself to finish it due to lack of drive and time. I still have a WIP draft sitting around, but I honestly don't know when I can get around finishing it. Until then, I want to say that I really enjoyed the game despite its shortcomings, and over time it crept its way into my top favorite FFs. Noctis being a fantastic and relatable protagonist and the main antagonist becoming my #1 favorite in the franchise helped big time.
I've been playing Final Fantasy Tactics in the past few months, but my completionist tendencies have slowed my progress to a crawl (gotta get those delicious high-end job skills for all the major characters I'm going to keep using, ouch). I've yet to finish the main story for the time being.
Games I'm interested in playing in when I can get to them: Later Alligator, Eliza and Final Fantasy VIII.
I've been keeping up with volunteer play testing for A Purrtato Tail (which is very pawsome). I took a new approach to reporting issues. I'm hoping to keep refining my QA skills as more builds come out.
I meant to get back to Blender, but university ate up my time so I wasn't able to work on anything since September. I shared my most recent works on my journal as I only had them on Twitter until now. A few days ago I got an idea for something I wanted to build out, but I wasn't able to nail it down, so I got frustrated and left it to sit. Though, not having touched Blender for months didn't help, either.
I didn't even make it to learning Unity and C#, but that's okay. The more knowledge and skills I accumulate from university and other sources, the smoother it will be when I get to that point (hopefully). Particularly with learning programming languages and coding practices.
Looking Back on the 2010s
Honestly, I am more than happy to put this decade behind me. While I don't want to ignore the good things that happened, my twenties weren't the best. If entering my thirties means a better future for me, then I'll welcome it by all means.
I don't want to focus on the negatives. Some of my highlights:
- I established Neo Ark Cradle with Ark back in 2011. Wow, it's hard to believe it was so long ago.
- I realized that my previous major wasn't for me. I ended up enjoying my next major much more, which I graduated from in early 2019.
- I volunteered as a tournament organizer for a local game store.
- Had my first big job, in the video game industry, no less. I met several good people through it and walked away with a lot of knowledge and insight.
- Started my Master's, which is incredibly tough but I hope it will be worth it in the end.
Looking Forward to 2020
My list for the next year is rather simple:
- Continue with my studies and progress through my Master's studies.
- Continue working on and expanding my skills.
- Stay alive.
And with that, Happy New Year, everyone.